July

The Honors Committee needs YOU - Distinguished Risk Manager (DRM) and Innovative Risk Management Solutions award deadlines are 8/1/17

Copyright URMIA
Copyright URMIA

By Anita Ingram, Assistant Vice President and Chief Risk Officer for University of Cincinnati, Co-Chair of the URMIA Honors Committee.

The URMIA Honors Committee is pleased to report on its efforts to fulfill the mission of URMIA. Gary Langsdale, risk officer for Pennsylvania State University, and I have enjoyed serving URMIA again as co-chairs of this committee. URMIA's Honors Committee is responsible for celebrating members' achievements with the Distinguished Risk Manager (DRM) award, Emeritus Member standing, and the Innovative Risk Management Solutions award. URMIA's entire membership helps the committee honor our association's champions by nominating our colleagues for consideration of each of these awards. The Honors Committee considers each nomination and selects members who are most suited for the various categories. Award recipients are acknowledged at the URMIA Annual Conference.

Read more...


Getting to know "U," URMIA style: Michael Histed

Michael Histed

This month, URMIA's Communications Committee invites you to meet URMIA member Michael Histed, director of the office of risk management at the University of Ottawa. This recurring article aims to introduce you to the full diversity of URMIA's members, their institutions and organizations. Our members hail from all parts of the world, and we hope this helps build greater connections with your peers. Enjoy!

Read more...

 

Best of the best

Copyright Army Medicine
Copyright Army Medicine

By Joseph DesPlaines, Consultant, Business Continuity & Crisis Response for Districts Mutual Insurance (Wisconsin Technical Colleges).

Business continuity and crisis response professionals are constantly bombarded with articles, "research reports," webinars and workshops, all claiming to have the 8, 10 or 12 most important steps to take that will guarantee a successful response to a crisis. I also have published articles and made presentations identifying multiple lessons learned and best practices; however, I am still frequently asked to simplify and reduce this information down to the three or four key steps that will give the greatest chance of an effective response. As a result, I have reviewed recent response research and talked to several colleagues who have been involved in high profile crisis events and offer the following "best of the best" practices.

Read more...


Copyright Eugene Kim
Copyright Eugene Kim

By Ronna Papesh, Database and Website Administrator, URMIA.

Welcome to URMIAnetwork Tech Tips, our new Insights column sharing ways to be more efficient on the URMIA website and introducing new features and tools as they become available. This month, we will look at how you can build a power-packed contact list of peers in the URMIAnetwork.

Read more...


05.jpg

Happy summer, URMIA! We have some exciting URMIA National Office staff updates for you this month. You may have noticed our "Ask Glenn" button on the URMIAnetwork has changed to "Ask Lou." We welcomed a new staff member since the last edition of Insights! Lou Drapeau has joined our staff as resource manager. Lou will be taking on the management of our online library, and you will see his posts in the discussion board as he shares new and interesting resources. Read on to learn what our other staff members are up to, as well as other updates from your association.

Read more...


 Copyright Andrew Turner
Copyright Andrew Turner

Each month, this article provides some of the latest risk management resources, as well as a calendar of upcoming events, webinars, conferences and other learning opportunities in which you or your campus colleagues may be interested.

Risk management resources

  • "FEMA Public Assistance for institutions of higher education: The 10 greatest myths," EY. FEMA may support colleges and universities with Public Assistance after a disaster. Institutions consider FEMA as a source of funding when assessing insurance coverage and developing disaster recovery plans. Yet the FEMA Public Assistance program is widely misunderstood, particularly by institutions that have never dealt with FEMA. Such misunderstandings and misconceptions are hardly surprising given the statutes, policies and guidelines that underlay the Public Assistance program. This article addresses some of the major myths surrounding FEMA Public Assistance as it applies to eligible institutions of higher education.
  • FAA Safety Briefing: Drone Safety. This issue of FAA Safety Briefing focuses on the ever-expanding world of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones. Feature articles answer the who, what, when, where, why and how of UAS operations, including the regulatory and technical challenges they present.
  • Risk Inventory - May 2017 Update, URMIA. Thanks to Glenn Klinksiek, URMIA education manager, we have updated our URMIA Risk Inventory. If you have not checked out this resource yet, you will find an ever-growing list of risks of which one should be aware at institutions of higher education. URMIA will continue to update the Risk Inventory as new risks emerge. Please send your comments and suggestions to Glenn at education@urmia.org.
  • AAU Campus Activities Report: Combating Sexual Assault and Misconduct, Association of American Universities (AAU). This report from the AAU details the findings from a comprehensive follow-up survey to its 2015 member survey. Fifty-five of 62 members took part in the survey. The report is divided into six sections that describe and highlight the assorted actions being taken by campuses to address sexual assault and misconduct, education and training, student support, developing a campus ecosystem, resources, and measuring change.
  • "An Overview of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Amendments to the Clery Act," URMIA. Thanks very much to Andrea Stagg, deputy general counsel at Barnard College, and Joseph Storch, associate counsel at the State University of New York, for their efforts in developing URMIA's latest Government and Regulatory Affairs White Paper. On March 7, 2013, President Obama signed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA). Among the provisions included in the Act were amendments to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, otherwise known as the Clery Act. Most of the amendments to the Clery Act address how institutions must count, disclose, and respond to reports of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault. Other changes require colleges and universities to implement educational initiatives aimed at preventing and remedying instances of these crimes on campus. Yet other amendments concern hate crimes and the confidentiality of crime victims in timely warnings. This white paper describes the new statutory and regulatory requirements by (1) defining dating violence, domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault; (2) identifying new categories of reportable hate crimes; (3) clarifying the methodology for counting certain Clery-reportable crimes; (4) listing required policy changes; and (5) examining the overlap between the VAWA regulations and Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sub-regulatory guidance on Title IX
  • Research Briefs, CUPA-HR. CUPA-HR recently published two research briefs focused on the changes in representation and pay equity of women and minorities in higher education administrative roles during the last 15 years. As expected, these briefs include some good news… and some not so good news. The briefs are free for download.
  • Creating Inclusive Communities Project, CUPA-HR. Last year, CUPA-HR launched a powerful, easy-to-use resource that has already been used by hundreds of campuses across the country. It is a free resource that can be used by many areas of campus to create a more inclusive campus community. Watch the trailer video on the landing page and then check out some of the individual stories and discussion starter documents.

Read more...

 

URMIA members in the news

 Copyright Hamza Butt
Copyright Hamza Butt

URMIA's membership continues to grow. Help us welcome our newest members, and read on to learn about the professional updates from your colleagues.

Read more...


Insights is the bi-monthly online newsletter for the University Risk Management and Insurance Association. Published by URMIA’s Communications Committee, this newsletter contains more than the latest information about URMIA. Insights gathers thoughtful commentary on higher education risk management as well as tutorials and detailed explanations of risk management practices and tools.

Have an article or news to share? Send it to the editor!

FEATURED ARTICLE

Retirement plan lawsuits: Preparing for the storm

By John Morahan and Aaron Turner, reprinted from The New England Journal of Higher Education, originally appearing in the May 2, 2017, edition.

Scanning internet news headlines on any given day will quickly confirm we live in litigious times ... especially when it comes to money and investing. Currently, higher education is being roiled by class-action lawsuits filed against high-profile institutions, including MIT, Yale and New York University, over management of their retirement plans.

Read more...

News Briefs

Court finds university's Title IX proceedings to be on par with state criminal proceedings, rules to limit concurrent federal judicial review
Read more...

Title IX's unintended impact on sexual assault victims?
Read more...

New Jersey man charged after threats caused multi-day shutdown of a college in Washington state
Read more...

Partial travel ban reinstatement and its impacts on higher education
Read more...

Facing flood risk: The costliest natural disaster risk, yet the easiest to prepare for
Read more...

Representatives from the US Departments of Education and Justice meet with NACUA members
Read more...

Affiliate Innovative Resources

Log in to see this information

Either the content you're seeking doesn't exist or it requires proper authentication before viewing.

Upcoming Events

Log in to see this information

Either the content you're seeking doesn't exist or it requires proper authentication before viewing.

Announcements

URMIA National Office staff roll call
Read More...

Registration is now open for URMIA's 48th Annual Conference; save with early bird pricing before 8/15/17!
Read More...

Join URMIA's RM events community for the latest in risk management
Read More...

URMIA retiree dinner in Orlando: Plan to join us on September 23!
Read More...

URMIA and PRIMA partner to offer two ERM trainings in 2017
Read More...